U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,706 discloses a well-working implant for occluding a passage in a circulatory. This implant has its particular application as a cardiological implant by means of which it is possible, for example to close an aperture through the atrial septum or the ventricle septum of a heart. It is arranged to be deployed or built up at a desired location in the body. This occluder comprises a plurality of thin wire-like elongate members which form a fixation structure and a single occluding body, namely a disk-like flexible membrane, which is expanded by the fixation structure in the body passage. The fixation structure is locked in its expanded state by a locking unit. This locking unit comprises two locking elements which are brought together when the occluding body is expanded.
WO 2005/074813 discloses an occluder working with the same principle but comprising two occluding bodies which are expanded by the fixation structure. This occluder securely closes both sides of the passage.
These two occluders have the advantage that the occluders can be opened and closed and therefore its location within the body passage can be changed until the fixation structure is locked in its expanded form by the locking unit. However, care has to be taken that the thin elongate members, especially when bent into the fixation structure, do not break. When biodegradable material is used as suggested in U.S. 2003/0149463, care has to be taken that the implant is overgrown with the body tissue, before the material is dissolved. Small parts which would otherwise break from the occluder and be transported in other parts of the human body may cause some severe damage. Furthermore it was noticed that the overgrowth of the occluding body, especially the disk-like membranes, happens faster than the overgrowth of the elongate members.
WO 2012/156415 attends to this problem by suggesting a protecting jacket or shell being arranged around the fixation structure. This shell is made of a soft and flexible material so that it can also be compressed or folded when the occluder is introduced in an introduction sheath into an animal or human body. When parts of the fixation structure break away, they are hold back by the jacket and can not wander through the body. However, there are still parts of the occluder which can wander through the body.
Other types or occluders are known in the state of the art as well. However the prior art occluders described in the following do not have the advantages mentioned above:
WO 03/061481 discloses a sail-like occluder comprising two sheets forming the occluding bodies and wire arms. The wire arms end in tips which are sewed on the sheets.
WO 2006/062711 shows two sheet-like occluding bodies and elongate members forming an expanding structure, wherein the elongate members are sewed on the sheets.
In WO 2010/129511 the sheets are sewed to elongate members which also comprise terminating ends.
Attachments of arms to the sheets by sutures are also disclosed in WO 2004/067538 and U.S. 2005/034723.